Monday, March 18, 2013

Today's post is from Brian Spencer. He is our
intern this semester at ILSHRM as well as Rogers
HR Consulting. He will be graduating
this May from UIS with a degree in Management and focused on beginning a new
career in HR. He has been a tremendous
asset to us in promoting the Advocacy Program here in the state and help
coordinate projects for the upcoming Legislative Conference this April. Connect with him on Linkedin

Many of you have heard about ILSHRM seeking to build an
Advocacy Team throughout the state. Some
of us have new representatives that were just sworn into office this past month,
so it is a great time to start planning to introduce ourselves and the value
that we can bring to them as professionals who represent both, our companies
and our employees, rather than a party affiliation. As I have been talking to people about
advocacy I have noticed some of the first questions that come to mind are:

“How much time is involved?”

“What am I supposed to say to
my elected official when I talk to them?”

“What exactly is an advocate
anyway?”

Well, I will start with the last
question first. An Advocate is simply someone
willing to establish and maintain a relationship with their local elected
official and set themselves up as a support person in the area of HR. Additionally, as our legislative team sees
bills coming that require attention, information will be passed to you to help
educate your elected official on how it could impact our field and our people.

This takes
us right into the next question. I have
heard that it can be intimidating to call or speak in person to our elected
officials. In fact, I was rather
intimidated the first time I spoke to one of my legislators in his office, but
it has been refreshing to find that they truly want to hear from us. We are
their constituents first and foremost; in addition, we represent our companies
and our employees. Often times the
conversations start with a simple introduction of ourselves and our profession,
and then offering ourselves as a resource for them in the future. One of the best things we can do is to simply
be nice. We are simply a resource for
them in an area where many do not have as much expertise as they would like.

And now,
for the question about time; the next “most valuable commodity of our day”
according to some. To say that many
people are overcommitted today would be an understatement. This is a project that I can comfortably say
does not take an exceptional amount of time.
In fact you may likely only get to speak with your official for 15-20
minutes at a time to begin with. If you
will maintain this extension of service about once or twice a quarter the
result may surprise you. The ultimate
goal is for us to get to a place that by time the Legislative Conference comes
next year we can go to the capital and they will hear our name and come out to
say, “Hey Brian, how are you? What can I do for you?” Then you will know your time has been well
spent!

As a follow
up point… Don’t forget to say “Thank
you.” We all know what it is like to be
worn down by criticism. For people in
office this can be a daily grind that becomes wearisome. Besides the fact that it is nice to be
appreciated, it lets them know you are watching!

If this
sounds like something that could be exciting for you, or if you would simply
like some more information please click
here and give us some basic information so that we can follow up and help
equip you to be an Advocate!

(Special thanks to Terry Steczo who helped to coach me through each of
these points.)